Description of Research Expertise

Research Interests
Functional role of epigenetics in development.

Key words: Cloning, Nuclear Transfer, Genomic Imprinting, Stem Cells.

Description of Research
One research interest of the laboratory is reprogramming of mammalian somatic cell clones. Clones derived from somatic cells seldom develop to term, and those that do often have severe defects resulting in perinatal death or postnatal abnormalities. A common hypothesis to explain the poor developmental competence of mammalian somatic cell clones is that genes of the differentiated somatic donor nuclei are not or not sufficiently reprogrammed to adopt the gene expression program of a normal developing embryo. We are testing this hypothesis by looking at clones immediately after the reprogramming process supposedly occur, at preimplantation stages using a variety of epigenetic and gene expression criteria.

We are currently primarily interested in the phenomenon of genomic imprinting. Genomic imprinting refers to the unusual situation that some genes are only expressed from the gene copy from one parent. One research direction within the field is to determine the mechanism(s) by which imprinted genes are expressed or silenced depending on parental origin. We are interested in the functional consequences of imprinted gene expression and its limitations during development and in the adult with relevance to regenerative medicine.

Rotation Projects for 2008
Potential projects currently include:

Uniparental stem cell therapy. We have established that uniparental ES cells ie from parthenogenetic and androgenetic embryos, have the potential to regenerate adult hematopoiesis. We wish to verify their validity for tissue transplants and test the limitations of genomic imprinting by transplanting uniparental derived cells of other types to regenerate adult organs. Each tissue type could be a single rotation project and logistics have been prepared for each tissue type. They include: cardiac, germ cells to regenerate male gonads; neural stem cells and hepatocytes. Project would/could include actual transplants, in vitro differentiation of ES cells, assessment of viability and regeneration, analysis of imprinting in tissues prior and subsequent to engraftment.